The first improvement on the primitive arched bow was to provide some
sort of handle in a straight line with the hair or string of the bow,
such as is shown in the MS. translation of the Psalms by Labeo Notker,
late 10th century, in the University library, Leipzig.[14] The length of
the handle was often greatly exaggerated, perhaps by the fancy of the
artist. Another handle (see Bodleian Library MS., N.E.D. 2, 12th
century) was in the form of a hilt with a knob, possibly a screw-nut, in
which the arched stick and the hair were both fixed. The first
development of importance influencing the technique of stringed
instruments was the attempt to find some device for controlling the
tension of the hair. The contrivance known as _cremaillere_, which was
the first step in this direction, seems to have been foreshadowed in the
bows drawn in a quaint MS. of the 14th century in the British Museum
(Sloane 3983, fol. 43 and 13) on astronomy. Forming an obtuse angle with
the handle of the bow is a contrivance shaped like a spear-head which
presumably served some useful purpose; if it had notches (which would be
too small to show in the drawing), and the hair of the bow was finished
with a loop, then we have here an early example of a device for
controlling the tension. Another bow in the same MS. has two round knobs
on the stick which may be assumed to have served the same purpose.
[Illustriation: Drawn from bows the property of William E. Hill & Sons.